What are your favorite Greek dishes?

[PMills]

In addition to naming your favorite Greek meals / dishes (excluding desserts, pastries), can anyone also offer links to any English language site/s with recipes for the best and most well known Greek meals / dishes.

[Jason Perlow]

Mousakka and Pastitsio. Definitely way up there in my favorites.

Shrimp Saganaki, the greek answer to shrimp parmigiano.

-Pork- Souvlaki.

Gyros.

Spanakopita, spinach pies

Loukanikou, greek sausage.

Anything avgolegmono.

[Pan]

I've liked Moussaka for a long time and often get it when eating at a Greek restaurant, especially when I'm out of town. I like Avgolemano Soup only when there's a lot of lemon juice in it, and I've been known to ask for more lemon to squeeze into the soup.

I also like Greek roast leg of lamb and broiled fish dishes.

For dessert, Baklava. Yum! Or Samos or some of the other Greek dessert wines.

Of course, Greeks also really know how to make nice salads, and there are various excellent spreads with pita.

[macrosan]

I have to admit I've never eaten a Greek main course dish that I've been crazy about But I'm a big fan of their starters, and at most Greek restauarants I've been to I just order lots of those and make a meal of them. Just like Spanish tapas.

My favorite is dolmades (fried vine leaves stuffed with rice and minced lamb). I love their salads, particularly with those fabulous kalamata olives. I can eat houmous and tzatziki with pitta bread all night long. I've had deep-fried anchovies with yoghourt that was blissful. There is something wonderfully relaxing about sitting at an open air restaurant on a warm evening, nibbling at dozens of different dishes laid out on the table, sipping at a glass of wine ....

[jackal10]

Taramasalata

Grilled fish eaten overlooking the warm sea at sunset....actually doesn't have to be Greek, but they do it very well...

[Adam Balic]

Greek Link

[macrosan]

Grilled fish eaten overlooking the warm sea at sunset....actually doesn't have to be Greek, but they do it very well...

That's interesting, because I have also found that Greek grilled fish is terrific. It may not "have to be Greek" but I do think the Southern Europeans have a unique method of grilling fish. The style seems to be very similar in Cyprus, Malta, Italy, Spain and so on.

As to whether it tastes different at sunset ....

[Simon Majumdar]

Greek treatment of lamb is amongst my favourite in Europe, be it the grilled young spring lamb chops served with lemon to the Kleftico cooking of older lambs or hoggart.

I make a kleftico using a shoulder of lamb (with the blade bone removed ) which I stuff with mint, rosemary, thyme and garlic and then with some white wine, S&P and a chopped preserved lemon. I cook it in a heavy pot which I seal in the same way one would with a daube or a Hydrebady Byriani ( sealed with a strip of dough ) and leave it in a low oven for four hours or a very low oven over night.

Very simple but with superb flavour

You can use leg of lamb, but I think the fattier cut works best in this instance

S

[AdamLawrence]

Simon took the words out of my mouth. I love kleftiko. It's odd, because normally I'm definitely in the rare lamb category. But every now and then I want slow cooked melting lamb, either shanks braised in red wine or kleftiko.

Mmmmm kleftiko...................

Adam

[claire797]

Pastitsatha. There's nothing like that heady, aromatic combination of cinnamon, cumin and tomatoes.

Oh how I wish we had a good Greek restaurant here in Austin :(.

[NeroW]

My favorite is dolmades (fried vine leaves stuffed with rice and minced lamb).

Word.

[Suzanne F]

Kokoretsi -- innards wrapped in other innards and roasted over a spit. I look forward to my yearly fix at the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival in NYC (ah, in only about 4 and a half weeks!)

Also quail stuffed with herbs and cheese and spit-roasted.

[Jason Perlow]

Skorthalia is one of my favorite mezze dips -- its mashed potatoes with lots of olive oil and a TON of garlic.

Melitzanosalata (Babaganoush) is great too.

[claire797]

One of my favorite things about living in Chicago was Greektown. This thread brings back so many memories -- Santorini, Pegasus, Parthenon.

But back to favorite foods. Another thing I really love is Saganaki. It's one of those things that you just don't eat at home. Half the fun is watching the waiter set it on fire and yell Opa! or whatever. We just don't do that at home.....though I suppose we could....

[Jason Perlow]

One of my favorite things about living in Chicago was Greektown.  This thread brings back so many memories -- Santorini, Pegasus, Parthenon. 

But back to favorite foods.  Another thing I really love is Saganaki.  It's one of those things that you just don't eat at home.  Half the fun is watching the waiter set it on fire and yell Opa! or whatever.  We just don't do that at home.....though I suppose we could....

Supposedly, shrimp saganaki was invented in the 1960's as a dish to serve to tourists coming off the cruise ships.

Whether it is or it isnt, I still love it.

[Jaymes]

Supposedly, shrimp saganaki was invented in the 1960's as a dish to serve to tourists coming off the cruise ships.

Hey - that still makes it Greek. Right?

Edited April 23, 2003 by Jaymes (log)

[Bigfoot]

Northern Greek pies (esp. greens & cheese in bourek dough)

Skordalia with everything (fish, eggplant, pita, etc.)!

Avgolemono soup with chunks of chicken

Fried haloumi with eggs on top for weekend breakfast

Galaktoboureko (sweet semolina custard sandwiched between phyllo)

Kadaifi rolls and Greek/Turkish coffee

Sour cherry preserve spoon sweet (sometimes mixed into a glass of ice water as a summer drink)

[torakris]

Anyone have recipes to go with any of these dishes?

Embarrassed to admit I have never been to a Greek restaurant and my only tastes have been from some Greek style fast food places in food courts at malls!

My husband (then boyfriend) promised to take me to a greek restaurant on our last day before leaving Maui to move to Japan, but upon stopping at the ATM to withdrawl money for the meal, we discovered we only had $2 left to our names. We went back to our apartment and he made me dinner:

sauteed whole canned tomatoes seasoned with soy sauce and served over rice, the only things left in the apartment! I still never forget that meal!

[Bigfoot]

Torakris,

Try The Aegean in Shibuya (the only Greek restaurant in Tokyo owned & operated by a Greek, AFAIK, and site of many a fun evening -- 3-18-3 Shibuya, B1F. tel: 3407-1783). Sparta and Mikonos (Yokohama) have evidently gone downhill over the last few years.

Which dishes are you interested in making? I can PM you a great recipe for Galaktoboureko if you like (unfortunately copyrighted)!

[torakris]

Torakris,

Try The Aegean in Shibuya (the only Greek restaurant in Tokyo owned & operated by a Greek, AFAIK, and site of many a fun evening -- 3-18-3 Shibuya, B1F. tel: 3407-1783).  Sparta and Mikonos (Yokohama) have evidently gone downhill over the last few years.

Which dishes are you interested in making?  I can PM you a great recipe for Galaktoboureko if you like (unfortunately copyrighted)!

Bigfoot,

thanks for the recommendation! My husband and I have an anniversary coming up next month and are looking for a place to go.

That recipe sounds incredible and i just happen to have a pack of phyllo in the freezer!

Eagerly awaiting the recipe!

[alithea]

i like spoon sweets and water.

and haloumi cheese. fried is good, but flambéd is better.

beacause you can't resist cheese on fire.

[anil]

Greek treatment of lamb is amongst my favourite in Europe, be it the grilled young spring lamb chops served with lemon to the Kleftico cooking of older lambs or hoggart.......

sti suvla (sp?) yahni (sp?) are my favourite lamb dishes. We shall be eating this after the Greek Easter, naturally

Much of the islands offer fresh fish, simply cooked. While the mainland, specially in the north, lamb based dishes are the main fare.

[KatieLoeb]

PMills:

I can't offer a link to Greek food, but I'd recommend my favorite cookbook as a great resource. The Complete Book of Greek Cooking by the St Paul's Greek Orthodox Cathedral has the best Greek recipes I've seen, and they're quite easy to follow. It was the "church ladies" recipe club that put this book together and the recipes have all the hallmarks of good ethnic home cookery. Lots of "classic" Greek dishes and maybe some things you aren't familiar with, but everything I've made from here has turned out very well.

I can't name any particular favorite, but the things I make most often at home are Tzatziki and Melitzanosalata. I love having easy stuff to dip vegetables and/or pita bread into on short notice.

My favorite Greek restaurant in Philadelphia, Chef Theodore's, sadly closed it's doors many years ago, but I still remember the scorched rings on the ceiling from the Saganaki! OPA!